Dorothy Garlock - [Tucker Family] Read Free

differences between the two of them physically; Christina had black hair and piercing green eyes and an even
     temperament while Charlotte was far more prone to fly off the handle, but the bond between them had always been unshakeable.
     All the hours they spent together, talking about their dreams and hopes, seemed to have passed by in an instant. To watch
     her older sister set off on the course of her life had prompted Christina to count the days until she could do the same.
    And so, two days earlier, the twenty-year-old Charlotte Tucker had waved farewell to all that she had known. Through tears,
     she imagined that those who had passed away from her life—her mother, old Uncle Otis who had died one night in his sleep with
     a beaming smile across his face, and even Jasper, the mangy mutt who used to follow Charlotte on her many adventures around
     Carlson—were all watching down approvingly from Heaven above.
    What lay ahead Charlotte couldn’t know, but she couldn’t wait to get to Oklahoma and begin her new life. Whether it was teaching
     schoolchildren, seeing new sights, meeting new people, or even, as impossible as it was to imagine, falling in love, she was
     ready to enjoy every step of the way.
    As the reddish yellow sun, as full as a saucer, began its descent on the far distant horizon and stars crowded the edges of
     the sky announcing the coming of the night,Charlotte closed her eyes, relaxing with the gentle rocking and swaying of the train car, and slowly drifted to sleep.
    One of the first days of the rest of her life was finally drawing to an end.
    Charlotte awoke to bright rays of sunlight streaming through the window onto her face and the sounds of her few fellow passengers
     as they began to stir. Her sleep hadn’t been peaceful; a man’s snoring had wakened her and she had the vague memory of gazing
     out her window upon the shimmering surface of a slow-moving river silvered by moonlight. Fortunately, she’d been able to fall
     back to sleep. She rubbed at her neck, stiff from the discomfort of having to sleep sitting up.
    Outside, the landscape had changed as the train sped through the night; gone were the gently rolling hills of prairie grass,
     replaced by a mostly flat scrabble occasionally spotted by squat, clumpy hills of much-redder soil than any she had ever seen
     before. Tufts of buffalo grass sprang up here and there, far taller than the rest of the short, parched-looking grass. Trees
     were few and far between, with bunches of scrub bushes scattered about.
    Having grown up on the shores of a large lake, surrounded by majestic maple, elm, and pine trees and the thick woods full
     of wildlife, Charlotte found the many differences of the Oklahoma landscape startling, yet beautiful at the same time. She
     wondered whether the people shewould meet in Sawyer would be so different from those at home.
    Suddenly, Charlotte spotted one of them. Up on a rocky rise, sitting atop a tan and white horse, was a cowboy. When he caught
     sight of the passengers looking up at him, he took off his dusty hat and gave them a hearty wave. Charlotte managed to wave
     in return, but only after the train had moved on and the cowboy had fallen from sight.
    At the front of the train car, the door opened and in walked the train’s conductor, a portly man with a thick, bushy white
     mustache wider than the small hat sitting atop his head. Checking a pocket watch connected by a chain fob to his vest, he
     nodded to passengers as he made his way down the narrow aisle.
    “How much longer until the train arrives in Sawyer?” Charlotte asked.
    “Next stop.” He thumbed in the direction the train was heading. “By my watch we should be there in just under twelve minutes.”
    The first signs of Sawyer soon began to come into view. There were ranches with enormous steers and dozens of horses all lazing
     behind sturdy fences. As the train passed by one ranch, a battered pickup truck pulled out and followed alongside